This invention relates generally to a method and apparatus for transferring a communication session from a first destination device to a second destination device in a computer network with minimal disruption to the communication session, and more particularly to a method and apparatus for transferring a communication session between a Transferring Node and a Correspondent Node in an Internet Protocol (IP) based network from the Transferring Node to a Target Node without disrupting the communication session with respect to the Correspondent Node.
Over the past decade, the number and size of computer networks, such as the Internet, Intranets, Wide Area Networks (WAN's), and Local Area Networks (LAN's), have increased dramatically. In addition, the number of users who access these networks from various locations over the network has grown. For example, many users are accessing their networks from other office buildings on and off corporate campuses, from their homes, from client offices, etc. The increase in the number and size of networks, as well as the increase in the number of mobile users has introduced several problems including the inability to provide uninterrupted access to the network for Mobile Nodes. One of the main problems confronted has been the inability to allow a user to disconnect from one IP sub-network in a large IP network and reattach to the large IP network from another sub-network without interrupting ongoing network communication sessions. For example, users may be required to manually change IP addresses and reinitialize sessions when they move about the network in order to be recognized as an authorized network user or to access their network files. A solution to this problem was presented in the form of an extension to the Internet Protocol called Mobile IP.
Mobile IP is a recently standardized method for enabling what this description terms Session Inter-Subnet (SIS) mobility in IP networks. SIS mobility refers to the ability of a device to disconnect from an IP network such as the Internet and reattach to the IP network on another sub-network without interrupting ongoing sessions. Mobile IP is documented in Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) Request For Comment (RFC) 2002, 2005, and 2006. Textbooks such as “Mobile IP: The Internet Unplugged” ISBN 0-13-856246-6 by James D. Solomon also document Mobile IP. Mobile IP is one of the dominant IETF standards in mobility and operates as a highly secure and dynamic packet data device mobility service. It provides a network layer solution for moving active sessions with a device as the device moves between IP sub-networks. Therefore, the user does not have to manually change an IP address and reinitialize sessions when moving around within the IP network, nor do Correspondent Nodes need to take action to maintain communication with Mobile Nodes.
According to Mobile IP, a network connection can be broken down into a Correspondent Node and a Mobile Node connected via an IP network. The Correspondent Node is a node located elsewhere on the IP network that is currently communicating with another node called the Mobile Node. When the Mobile Node is at its home location, in other words directly attached to its home sub-network, it receives communications from the Correspondent Node via routers that direct the communications to a home router, which in turn directs this information to the Mobile Node. During this active communication session, the Mobile Node may wish to move to a different sub-network, called a foreign network, while continuing to maintain the active session throughout the move. In order to do so without disrupting the Correspondent Node and the current communication session, the Mobile Node must continue to be reachable via the IP address it has been using throughout its communication session with the Correspondent Node. This task is accomplished in Mobile IP by use of a Home Agent.
The Home Agent (HA) intercepts communications meant for the Mobile Node and forwards these communications to the Mobile Node wherever it currently is located. The HA accomplishes this by use of a low-level protocol within the Internet Protocol (IP) suite called Address Resolution Protocol (ARP). ARP associates or “binds” the physical address of a node on the local sub-network with its IP address. Multiple IP addresses can be associated in this fashion with a single physical address. By using ARP, the HA associates its physical address with the IP address(es) of the Mobile Node(s). Following this association, the HA will receive traffic (or data) sent from the Correspondent Nodes to the Mobile Node's home address and the Mobile Node will register a “care of” address with the HA identifying its current location. The Mobile Node keeps the HA aware of its current care-of address by sending registration messages to the HA. The HA then forwards communications to the “care-of” address on the foreign network via an IP tunnel. Various types of IP tunnels exist in the art (IETF RFC's 1701, 2003, 2004), but each is essentially used to encapsulate the original communication as an inner IP packet (inner packet) or payload section of another larger IP packet (outer packet) which is addressed from the tunnel starting point to the tunnel endpoint. The tunnel endpoint node removes the outer packet header information, restoring the original packet (or communication).
One possible endpoint for the tunnel carrying forwarded packets for the Mobile Node from the Home Agent is a Foreign Agent (FA). The FA is a router with at least one interface on the Mobile Node's current foreign sub-network. Upon receipt of the tunneled packet, the Foreign Agent can provide a care-of address for the Mobile Node so the packet will be properly delivered. The FA may also de-tunnel packets forwarded by the Home Agent for the Mobile Node by removing the outer packet header, thus restoring the packets back to the packets originally intercepted by the Home Agent. The FA then sends these de-tunneled packets directly to the Mobile Node on its current foreign sub-network via the Mobile Node's link-layer address.
Another possible endpoint for the tunnel from the Home Agent is the Mobile Node itself. In this case, the Mobile node may acquire a temporary IP address on the foreign sub-network. This temporary address, called a co-located care-of address, functions as the care-of address for the Mobile Node while connected to the foreign sub-network. The Mobile Node may acquire this address by any means for generating IP addresses known in the art such as a Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) which is documented in IETF RFC 2131. Using this method of acquiring an address, the Mobile Node contacts a DHCP server requesting an unused IP address on the Mobile Node's current foreign sub-network. DHCP is increasingly common on current IPv4 networks, and future networks employing IPv6 will allow for nodes to dynamically create IP addresses without needing to acquire the addresses from a server. Thus, co-located care-of address generation is an increasingly viable option for receiving tunneled packets from the Home Agent, freeing the Mobile Node from the constraint of only visiting foreign sub-networks that have FA's.
The operation of Mobile IP outlined above was designed to enable a specific type of mobility, but there remain other types of mobility that have not been addressed. Mobile IP partially fills the mobility gap in the IP protocol suite by accommodating device movement between IP network attachment points or sub-networks while maintaining all of the device's IP communication sessions. For example, Mobile IP enables a notebook PC to move from its office Ethernet connection to a wide-area wireless packet data network with all of its network communications sessions with multiple Correspondent Nodes in tact. This Session Inter-Subnet (SIS) mobility has become increasingly common, thereby increasing the need for Mobile IP. However, Mobile IP does not address the problem of moving active communication sessions between different devices. For example, a user may wish to transfer a video conference from a fixed desktop machine to a notebook PC or Personal Digital Assistant (PDA) as the user leaves the office in order to continue participating. This description terms moving active IP networking sessions between devices such as in the above example “Session Inter-Device” (SID) mobility.
Networks other than IP networks provide transfer features and can enable movement of active communication sessions between devices. However, these networks do not address the variety of media and devices present in IP networks. For example, the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) H.323 protocol suite provides for call transfer based on the traditional telephony model and can accommodate transfer of multimedia sessions, and the IETF Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) family (ETF RFC 2543) with proposed extensions (IETF Draft “SIP Call Control Transfer” draft-ietf-sip-cc-transfer-02) provides for call transfer accommodating multimedia sessions as well. However, both of these approaches operate at a level often requiring modification to applications, including applications running on Correspondent Nodes. Furthermore, traditional telephony call transfer methods involve a gap or “hold” in the communication session while the call is redirected.
Thus, there is a need for a system and method capable of providing selective transfer of active communication sessions between nodes on an IP network from one end device to another end device with minimal disruption of the selected and unselected communication sessions.